My 2017 #teacher5aday pledge

I really enjoyed my #teacher5aday experiences last year and writing my 2016 pledges helped focus my efforts and motivate me towards achieving my goals.  With last year’s success to build on, here are this year’s pledges:

#exercise – This is going to be my main focus for this year.  I have had an increased sense of motivation towards exercise in the last 6 months (albeit with an injury enforced break and Christmas interval) and I intend on sustaining that during 2017.  To keep me focussed, I have already entered into a 10k run in May and my morning swim sessions started at 6:45am this morning (and I don’t start back to work until tomorrow!)    My pledge is to swim 40 lengths each morning before work; complete the 10k run in May and be fit  enough to enter the 2018 Reading Half Marathon.

I will write a ‘This Time Next Year’ blog to journal my efforts and progress with my exercise for anyone interested.

#connect and #learn– I had pretty good success with these strands last year.  I visited many schools and  all of them have had a positive impact on Highwood in some way.  I attended my first TeachMeets (Bulmershe and PedagooHampshire) and have expanded my PLN on Twitter.  There are many, many people that have improved me as a Headteacher resulting in greater learning experiences for the staff and children at my school without them knowing – for this I thank you all.   This year I pledge to forge stronger links with other mainstream schools that have Language Resource Units attached to them and share good practice as well as learning how to improve all aspects of our provision.

I have also pledged to be part of the #weeklyblogchallenge17 so hopefully I can #connect and #learn from others through this adventure as well.

#volunteer – This pledge is simple but my most daunting.  I pledge to lead a session at a Teachmeet / Primary Rocks event this year.  If you think I have something worth talking about (or just need the numbers…) get in touch!

#notice – Recently, I met a colleague who I worked with a few years ago.  We were catching up about our time together at our previous school and updating each other with our current careers.  Part way through the conversation, the topic of the reference I had written for them came up.  It hadn’t been the most glowing of references but it was honest in its appraisal of their practice to date.  We had met shortly after the interview it was used for, for me to go through with them exactly what I had written; the reasoning behind the comments and my advice as to how they could make improvements.  Although 5 years on, my colleague told me they still had a copy of the reference and it had been the motivation they had needed to improve their day to day practice and become successful in their application for their current DHT role.  I was quite taken aback by how my role in this process had been so important and the impact a few words and a short amount of 1:1 time had had such an impact on their career.  My pledge is to notice many more positives with staff at my school and feedback in as much detail as I would with areas of development in order to potentially help them become the leaders of the future.

So there they are!  Challenging but exciting goals that will help 2017 be a professional and personal success.

Thanks for reading.

Matt Hickey

@headhighwood